Capitalism and Writing [Charles Mudede]

The goal of this class is to provide literary writers with a basic introduction to the main themes and concerns of the “dismal science,” economics. Because we live in a world that’s dominated by these ideas, it is important for writers not only to be aware of them and their social implications but also to see how they might influence our thinking and writing. We are all economic animals, whether we like it or not. We will explore the ideas of scribblers like Thomas Piketty, Joan Robinson, and Karl Marx, and there will be three writing workshops to distill our economic frenzies into elegant prose and poems.